As I mentioned during the talk, I’m looking for beta testers in Zurich which will be given a BLE Shield just for the cost of the parts in order to create a solid firmware.

Why only Zurich? Well since it is easier to reflash the shield with a new firmware if we encounter issues during the beta test phase. We can meet somewhere in Zurich, I can come arround with a notebook and a CC Debugger and flash the new firmware to the shields.

I will post details on how to get into the beta program by the end of this week, since I need to calculate the price for the BLE Shield 0.9.2 hand soldered shields first.

10 Responses to BLE Shield for Arduino Presentation

I’m interested to receive a shield (yes, i live near Zurich) and work with an iphone but also with a samsung android phone. I will have to investigate some issues, but it should be possible with the used broadcom chip.

I’m interested to test the board too. My friend and I have a project in mind in wich we could use you board and test it simultaneously. I live in Zurich. I would be pleased if I can receive one of your boards.

While I’m not living in Zurich, I’m still very interested in obtaining one of these shields. As the largest mobile agency in the Netherlands we’re very interested in exploring new ways of interacting with/using mobile phones. We believe iOS 6 is gonna be a game-changer for Bluetooth LE in this field since the extended support it will bring.

Hi,
so I think you can be one of the exceptions not living in Zurich.
Do you have a CC Debugger and/or experience using it?
The idea of the beta test is to provide firmware updates to the users asap as they encouter issues using it. This is cery easy if you can meet the testers, have a beer together, chat and fix the firmware

If you are somewhere in the world, fixing and reflashing is not possilble.

While the idea of electronic brikcs are good, I would much rather that you find a way to make this work with Arduino Fio. This way we get the best of both worlds: easy construction and ability to use them in real world distributed data gathering project.I would, as a matter of fact, love to use this new brick + fio in smart home project

Hello Michael,
It’s so great to see what you are doing. I was hoping to get such a shield since a long long time! I have so many ideas in my head on what I could do if i could wirelessly connect my arduino with bluetooth to my iPhone
Do you have any estimates on when we’ll be able to order some of these things? Or on the price range that it will be in?
Are there shields you sell on your own? I have a friend in Zürich… would be really great to get my hands on this thing!
Again! Thanks for all your work!
Georg

Hello Georg,
thanks for the feedback. I finally have a quote for BLE Shield manufacturing in China, but before that I will do the beta run of 10 hand soldered shields in Zurich and some exceptions in pther places of the world

The Beta Shields will be 70 CHF and the final ones around the US$ 50 mark.

I’m still waiting for the missing parts to start soldering. I think that I can start soldering over the weekend. Feel free to write me some details on whe you are planning to use the BLE Shield, and I can put you on the list. There are still some of the 10 slots available

I wrote techBASIC, a technical programming environment for iOS. It already supports HiJack, and we’re working to extend the external sensors it can support. Your BLE Shield looks tailor made for techBASIC support!

I’m interested in getting one of your boards, and also in information about when and how it will be made widely available.

If you’re curious about how we’ve supported HiJack, take a look at the bogs section of our web site, particularly at http://www.byteworks.us/Byte_Works/Blog/Entries/2011/12/7_HiJack_Hello_world!_Project.html. You might also want to glance at the reference manual for techBASIC, or check out the article in the June 2012 issue of Nuts & Volts. You can also find several movies that show the general capabilities of techBASIC on YouTube; search for Byte Works techBASIC. I think the fit between techBASIC and your board will be pretty obvious from these links.